Family Stadium
Family Stadium, or Famista, is a series of baseball videogames by Namco. The name comes from the Family Computer, or Famicom, the original console on which the games were released. The games feature many real life players as well as fictional ones, both original and guests from other series, but in all games the players are represented in a simple stylized way, without much difference between them besides the uniform. Most games were only released in Japan, except for four, localized in North America with different titles: R.B.I. Baseball (Arcade, NES), Extra Bases (Game Boy), Batter Up (Game Gear) and Super Batter Up (SNES). Video games Main games *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium'' (December 10, 1986), Famicom, Arcade (Nintendo Vs. System). Released in North America for Arcade in 1987 as Atari R.B.I. Baseball, and then for NES in June 1988 as R.B.I. Baseball. *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium '87'' (December 22, 1987), Famicom, Arcade (Nintendo Vs. System). *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium '88'' (December 20, 1988), Famicom, Arcade (Nintendo Vs. System). *''Famista '89: Kaimaku Ban!!'' (July 28, 1989), Famicom. *''Famista '90'' (December 19, 1989), Famicom. *''Famista '91'' (December 21, 1990), Famicom. *''Famista '92'' (December 20, 1991), Famicom. *''Super Famista'' (March 27, 1992), Super Famicom. Released in North America for SNES in October 1992 as Super Batter Up with more realistic graphics and updated teams, this version may therefore be considered the second entry in a Batter Up series after the first game for Game Gear. *''Famista '93'' (December 22, 1992), Famicom. *''Super Famista 2'' (March 12, 1993), Super Famicom. *''Famista '94'' (December 1, 1993), Famicom. *''Super Famista 3'' (March 4, 1994), Super Famicom. *''Super Famista 4'' (March 3, 1995), Super Famicom. *''Super Famista 5'' (February 29, 1996), Super Famicom. *''Famista 64'' (November 28, 1997), Nintendo 64. *''Family Stadium 2003'' (May 30, 2003), GameCube. *''Pro Yakyuu Famista DS'' (November 15, 2007), Nintendo DS. *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium'' (May 1, 2008), Wii. *''Pro Yakyuu Famista DS 2009'' (April 2, 2009), Nintendo DS. *''Pro Yakyuu Famista DS 2010'' (March 25, 2010), Nintendo DS. *''Pro Yakyuu Famista 2011'' (March 31, 2011), Nintendo 3DS. *''Pro Yakyuu Famista Returns'' (October 8, 2015), Nintendo 3DS. *''Pro Yakyuu Famista Climax'' (April 20, 2017), Nintendo 3DS. Minor games *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium: Pennant Race Ban'' (December 2, 1988), PC-88VA. *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium: Home Run Contest'' (April 28, 1989), MSX. Actually a demo version of Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium: Pennant Race. *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium '89: Pennant Race Ban'' (October 27, 1989), PC-88VA. *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium: Pennant Race'' (November 22, 1989), MSX. *''Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium '90: Pennant Race Ban'' (September 28, 1990), FM Towns. *''Famista'' (September 14, 1990), Game Boy. Released in April 1991 in North America by Bandai as Extra Bases. *''Famista '91'' (1991), LCD game. *''Famista 2'' (July 30, 1992), Game Boy. *''Famista 3'' (October 29, 1993), Game Boy. *''Famista 4'' (November 29, 1996), Game Boy. Released exclusively within Namco Gallery Vol. 2. *''Famista Advance'' (June 28, 2002), Game Boy Advance. *''Famista 2006'' (April 6, 2006), PlayStation 2. A version of the 8 bit Famista games updated with modern players, it was only released as a minigame within Pro Yakyuu Netsu Star 2006. *''Famista Online'' (October 12, 2006), PC. It received various updates: **''Famista Online 2'' (June 28, 2007) **''Famista Online 3'' (June 26, 2008) **''Famista Online 2010'' (March 4, 2010) **''Famista Online 2011'' (March 3, 2011) **''Famista Online 2012'' (March 8, 2012) **''Famista Online 2013'' (March 7, 2013). Service ended on February 28, 2014. *''Famista 2007'' (April 5, 2007), PlayStation 2. An updated version of Famista 2006, released as a minigame within Pro Yakyuu Netsu Star 2007. *''Famista Dream Match'' (November 10, 2014), iOS, Android. A game centered exclusively around fictional players, the service ended on June 23, 2016. Other "Stadium" games The Family Stadium games were adapted to non-Nintendo consoles under different titles; since they are basically the same games we can still consider them part of the same series. For this reason the series is sometimes called the Stadium series instead. The Stadium games that we consider part of the series are: *''Gear Stadium'' (April 5, 1991), Game Gear. Released in North America as Batter Up. *''Gear Stadium Heiseiban'' (October 20, 1995), Game Gear. *''Wonder Stadium'' (March 11, 1999), WonderSwan. *''Wonder Stadium '99'' (September 30, 1999), WonderSwan. The same may be applied to the World Stadium series, but since it features a large number of titles produced independently, rather than being ports, we consider it a spin-off of the Family Stadium series instead. Other media A series of adventure book based on the series was published only in Japan between 1988 and 1990. Some merchandising items were also released, including a series of collectable cards. Links to other series Note: all games in the series feature a Namco Stars team, including players named after classic Namco games, characters and other properties; Famista Online introduced unlockable "player cards", showing an image of the player, in some cases depicted as a caricature (the generic Famista player only with some exclusive clothing and facial features), in some cases represented through an actual photo of the player, or an artwork if it's a fictional character; regardless of the player's depiction on the card, all games show them as generic people during gameplay; based on this there are three types of guest characters in the games: *Players named after classic characters: these only create an out-universe, or Type 3, link. *Caricature characters: these create an in-universe, or Type 1 link only when the character represented is a humanoid being; players named after non-humanoid characters still create a type 3 link when in caricature form. *Artwork characters: these create a type 1 link. The origin of the player names are given in official guidebooks, and are therefore confirmed, despite sometimes being very ambiguous. Mascot links: Najave from the Namco Namja Town theme park appears during a homerun in the Namco stadium in Famista 64 and as a player in Famista Online, Pro Yakyuu Famista 2011 and Famista Dream Match; Uketsuke Komachi, the robot receptionist from Namco's headquarters appears as a player in Famista Online (altough this might count as non-fiction since Uketsuke is a really existing robot); Pandameko (one of Bandai Namco's mascots) appears as a player in Famista Online 2009 and Famista Dream Match. Category:Namco Category:Namco Bandai Category:Series Category:Video games